As I've done from time to time, I'm starting another tutorial series. This one's for everyone, but specifically for crime writers and students of criminology, crim justice, and forensics. For writers, it's intended to help them incorporate fingerprint ID tactics in their novels. And, as they - and the teachers of students like you - know, it's a good way to introduce a topic is via a story. ID tactics So I'm starting off this series with a story. It's about how the FBI … [Read more...]
Bullies – how to respond to all sorts
Bullies come in all sorts of guises - from deceptively lightweight cyberbullies to the heavyweight Vladimir Putins and Xi Jinping's of this world. My friend and guest blogger today, Alain Gunn, has thought through the ways of how to respond to all sorts of bullies. Here's his essay on managing bullies. Bullies - how to respond to all sorts. How do you stop a bully? There are only two ways to do it: Convince the bully of the error of his ways Find a Bigger, Better … [Read more...]
The saga of the Titanium Rib and Dr. Mel Smith
I've had a lifelong interest in discrimination and birth-defects stemming from being bullied for my once-nasal cleft-palate speech. Hence I was interested when college classmate Alain Gunn wrote The Titanium Rib. The Discrimination Angle The book is about a device that allows infants born with defective chests and lung function to live. And it's a true story of two dedicated surgeons —one being a black man who endured discrimination as a trailblazer entering the lily white ranks of … [Read more...]
Adorable cleft-lipped boy adopts a cleft puppy—instant love.
Amid the 4 Ps confronting us Californians —pandemic, poverty, protests, and pyrotechnics* — comes a heartwarming story from Sydney Page at The Washington Post. Just what I needed, as a fellow cleft-affected person, to forget about the "plagues" which are depressing us in the San Francisco Bay Area. We've had to keep indoors (no outdoor masked activity) for twenty-something straight "unhealthy" Spare the Air days due to wildfires. Then a man who has a 2-year-old with a cleft … [Read more...]
“Just Mercy” author addresses issues raised by George Floyd’s death.
In my last blog, I passed along a progressive black man's take on the massive George Floyd protests. It was written by a Harvard Law grad who is a proponent of nonviolence. I'm giving time in today's blog to a moderate black man's take on the issue of racism raised by the protests. Attorney Bryan Stevenson, also a Harvard Law grad, is having a bit of a moment. The movie of his book Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption has just been released. It stars Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, … [Read more...]
Celebrate a killer or his victim on Earth Day? Ira vs Holly.
Who're you supporting if your choices are Ira and Holly? National Crime Victims' Rights Week (NCVRW) is this week. So is Earth Week which features today, Earth Day, which celebrates its Golden Anniversary. Earth Week There are stories looking at the silver lining of the Covid-19 pandemic. It's the seeming lack of pollution globally. Though some claim hi up atmospheric gases still loom ominously. And there are also stories … [Read more...]
Ira Einhorn, the Unicorn Killer, dies, but lives on in my book.
One of the murderers in my Privileged Killers and the Psychopaths among us, just died. I've blogged about him from time to time - here for example and with photos here. Tho his death has been widely reported as due to natural causes, he died of longstanding cardiac problems. His death, allegedly, was unrelated to the current coronavirus pandemic. . Nick Arama, writes in NBC Philadelphia that one-time environmentalist: "Ira Einhorn, 79, has died in prison. Susan … [Read more...]